West U to terminate Schoener

By: EDWIN HENRY, Editor

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, April 1, 2003

Schoeners termination for several alleged violations of police department policy, including use of excessive force, conduct unbecoming a peace officer and falsifying a police report in connection with Schoeners arrests of two men for public intoxication at a West U bar.

In accordance with city policy, Schoener now has until April 11 to successfully appeal his termination to Ross before the firing becomes official.

Wickers report, which he turned over to West U acting Police Chief Tod Schneider last week, comes Wickers analysis of a monthlong internal investigation into the arrests and Schoeners actions related to the department in the wake of that investigations completion. ##M:(full story)##

The internal investigation was launched after two of Schoeners fellow police officers complained of Schoeners actions during the arrests.

That investigation alleges Schoener verbally harassed one of the suspects during an inappropriately administered field sobriety test and that his arrest of the second man (who wasnt administered a field sobriety test) was frivolous. It also alleges Schoener cursed the two suspects before and after he had taken them into custody and that he cursed patrons outside the bar who witnessed the arrests, as well.

Nine of those alleged violations are in connection with the Jan. 7 arrests. Schoeners outright dismissal is recommended for four of those violations (one for his alleged conduct during the arrests; the other three for alleged falsification of police reports).

The disciplinary report recommends suspensions ranging from written reprimand to two separate recommendations of seven days suspension without pay for the other offenses related to the arrests.

Five separate disciplinary recommendations are part of a March 11 complaint the department filed against Schoener for multiple violations of city and state personnel policies.

The bulk of those infractions centered around Schoeners absenteeism, failure to sufficiently notify supervisors when he wasnt going to be present at work and failure to properly provide medical documentation to substantiate his claims of injury or sickness during the two months after the internal investigation was completed.

The disciplinary report recommends dismissal as appropriate under each of those major violations, separating out one related infraction for written reprimand.

The troubled West U officer, who joined the force in late 2000, had a nagging problem with absenteeism, especially in the weeks after he received notice that a disciplinary hearing before Wicker and Schneider was scheduled to address the issues cited in the internal investigation report. The meetings had to be scheduled four times because of his no-shows and he failed to appear at the last scheduled meeting on March 20. It was after that failure to appear that Wicker set into motion the procedures designed to lead to Schoeners dismissal.

While the expansive and delineated nature of the disciplinary report is noteworthy, the number and frequency of the infractions have no cumulative value, as Wicker understands it.

If, at the appeals hearing before Ross, Schoener successfully defends himself against the overwhelming majority of the allegations against him, he will likely still face dismissal.

You have to look at the whole picture, Wicker said. But, in my opinion, if you have one thing that warrants termination, that one thing is sufficient.

Schoener passed on a rare due process opportunity unique to West U and relatively few other cities employees when he failed to show at the disciplinary hearing which would have allowed him to have input into what if any punishment upper management would have recommended for him.

In every other place that Ive worked and most that Ive heard of, the department head has already made his decision before the employee gets an opportunity to appeal, says Wicker, who has worked in public service at nine cities over the past 37 years.

Schneider cites the Schoener case as one of only three or four over the past six years hes worked internal investigations that have resulted in dismissal of a West U police officer.

Luckily, we dont hire a lot of officers that make those kinds of serious mistakes, Schneider said.

Asked how the rest of the force was reacting to Schoeners dismissal, Schoener candidly responded Police officers dont like things that go wrong to drag on and on. They want problems resolved. Im sure some are sad to see him go, but they will wish him the best and then move on. These officers are professionals. Theyre ready to put this behind them and get back to doing their jobs.